SQUID NIGHT....
Last night I got to go with Sarah to "Squid Night" . It is a tradition at their school for the 3rd graders and one parent to learn about squid and disect one. A real one. Sarah was excited for weeks. And she insisted that I come, not her dad. I guess she thought it would gross me out more. It stunk and was slimy, but not as bad as cleaning a fish. The worst part was after removing the eyeball we had to squish it and rub it between our fingers and find a little clear bead inside of it, to place in the ziplock bag of items to take home. We found the ink sack, rubbed it on Sarah's hand, then removed the "quill", under a bunch of guts, like a clear plastic feather, then used the quill and ink to write our names. It was so much fun!! Sarah wrote hers in Japanese.

Sarah and her friend Kyla standing by Sarah's paper squid she made earlier this week.

The Tinker Toy Tree....
Isaac and Jacob, in their spare time today, constructed tinker-toy ornaments for our tree. Isaac's such a little builder. It was all his idea. It kept them busy for quite a while. I kind of like them, thinking of selling his idea to Halmark. As you can see, the tree was already kind of sad, no ornaments on the bottom 1/3 because of Luke, anything good it did have going for it the boys have rearranged. I give up. Luke is completely facinated with the tree, and says, "eee, eee" while pointing at it all day. There are a few non-breakable ornaments down lower which he likes to take off and bring to me, then I tell him to go put it back on the tree, and he does. He seems to be understanding A LOT of what we're saying these days, it so fun. He even took a towel back to the bathroom yesterday and hung it over the side of the tub after I asked him too, it was a proud moment for me. (Yes, I know, my son is BRILLIANT!)

Yes, if you look closely, you can see the painters tape on the window behind the tree!!! One day it will all come off. Hopefully while I live here to see it.

This week's gone pretty smoothly...
The worst that went wrong was a dead battery in the Suburban on Wednesday (kids left the car door open all night). I had a friend willing to jump my car, but I couldn't find the cables anywhere, but she has the same car insurance as me and informed me that I have roadside service, VALUABLE INFO! So I called, and within 5 minutes they were at my door. Amazing.
Emma has been dying to start swimming again. I have been hesitant since the best option for a team is on base, about 15 minutes away, she'd be working out 3x a week from 6-7:30. Could there be a worse time? What happened to afterschool? So I decided to self-induse pain and let her start this week while Adam was gone. Which ment I'd be driving both directions, so just staying during practice, getting everyone home about 8:00 and to bed late. Still not sure why we started THIS week, I guess just because she'd been dying to start. She's been so antzy since we've been here, and it'll be a good chance for her to make more friends as well. She's always my last one to bed too, so hopefully this'll wear her out. I thought she should eat dinner before we left the first night, so I fed everyone plenty early, 5:15, and then we left. Poor girl, that burger and fries didn't sit so well with her initial full speed swimming trying to impress her new coaches and friends. After about 20 minutes she had to run to the bathroom and almost puked, but was able to hold it down and resume, slowing down some the rest of the night. And no more dinner before practice, maybe a pbj.
Oh, back to driving her, I think it will really work out in my favor though, I have a plan, I'll have Adam meet me at the gym at 6 on swim nights, swap me cars, let him take the rest of the kids home, clean up from dinner and put them to bed, while I stay and work out and read during practice. It'll be a little "my time"!! So excited about that. I have been having a hard time working running into my new life here, I think it may be the missing link in my life! At first w/the crazy 24hr renovations, I omitted running because of lack of time. But now I've been ready to get going....a few weeks ago I told Adam I was either buying a tread mill or a triple jogger, that night I found a triple in Boston for $75, so I drove up the next day and picked it up. The rain canopy I ordered online just came this week. It should keep the wind off them and keep them warm, like a little greenhouse. We tried it out a few times this week, it worked well, I just have no where to take it!! No great running routes around here. W/a jogger that wide, I really need a paved biking trail or something. The roads don't have much of a shoulder and are too busy. There's a great route around base, but then I've got to pack up and drive there first. Anyway, my newfound night workout should work out GREAT! Yeah!
Adam gets home tomorrow night. No more solo for a little while. I had decided this past week would be a trial run for me for if Adam goes to Iraq....I've concluded that I would probably (??) survive, but that it would completely suck!!! I'm sure we would find a groove, but it would be really hard!! My good friend, Ellen, (who just gave birth to her 4th baby a week and a half ago) is going to be in that situation in January for 7 months. It's so amazing the sacrifices people all around us are making. It's humbling to watch.